NEWS IN BRIEF / A summary of developments across Los Angeles County | Community News File / Compton

Officer Gets Jail Term for Assaulting Student

A former school district police officer was sentenced Monday to a year in jail and five years' probation for assaulting an 18-year-old woman on campus.

Superior Court Judge Victoria Chavez sentenced Rodney Joseph Morris, 42, who was convicted last month on one count of assault under the color of authority. A jury deadlocked on another count of sexual battery.

Prosecutors said Morris fondled the woman in July after he came upon her and a friend sitting and talking in a car on the Compton High School campus.

He ordered the woman, who turned 18 that day, out of the car and took her behind a building, prosecutor Carol Rose said in an earlier interview.

Rose said Morris, a 22-year district veteran, is on probation after a misdemeanor conviction in 1995 stemming from a 1993 shooting in the Lennox area.